Mexico City Marks 500th Anniversary of the Fall of Tenochtitln
On May 22, 1521, Spanish forces and their Indigenous allies laid siege to the powerful Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán, where Mexico City now stands. The battle lasted nearly three months, ending with the fall of the Aztec Empire and Spain’s consolidation of power in a large swath of North America. Now, Mexico City is marking the 500th anniversary of the conquest with events that highlight the complex ways it shaped the country’s society.
“The fall of México-Tenochtitlán started a tale of epidemics, abuses and 300 years of colonial rule in Mexico,” Sheinbaum tells Mark Stevenson of the Associated Press (AP).
Per the British Museum, the Aztec people, also known as the Mexica, are said to have arrived in the spot that became Tenochtitlán in 1325. Over the next two centuries, they built up the city, constructing pyramids, temples, palaces and aqueducts. The empire conquered most of what’s now central and southern Mexico, building up a long-distance trading network.
Cortés was able to conquer Tenochtitlán thanks partly to alliances with Indigenous people whom the Aztecs had oppressed. These groups provided thousands of troops for the fight, joining 900 Spaniards. A key factor in the battle was the spread of smallpox in the city. Carlos Viesca-Treviño, a medical historian at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, tells the AP that at least half of the city’s 300,000 residents probably died before the Spanish entered the city, leaving Aztec Emperor Cuauhtemoc with “few troops with the strength left to fight.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mexico-city-marks-500th-anniversary-fall-tenochtitlan-180977794/